We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Adam Thomason a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Adam, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

The current food crisis in Venezuela stands out as one of the meaningful projects I have worked on. At the time of my coverage, it was the height of the food crisis in 2018. People were losing an average of 33 lbs of their body weight; they walked over 300 miles with babies, trying to find food. I was able to engage folks who wanted their story to be told, be it at the border, in the mountains, in shelters, or on the road. It was and still is startling to see a crisis of such when we waste 40% of our food here in America.

Adam, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a global citizen, a defender of humanity, and a learner of all and from all. I have traveled to over 3o countries and been around 100s of people groups, speaking, teaching, capturing, and telling stories through film and creative writing. My life changed in 2000 when I had the privilege to play on a Palestinian semi-pro team in Ramallah, Palestine, at 19. Before I went to Palestine, I believed the people were what America portrayed them as in the news, blowing up bombs and throwing rocks. But living there amongst them, they taught me love, inclusion, and community. I learned the power of storytelling as propaganda or storytelling as honest and truth, and how it could positively or negatively affect people’s perception. I committed to telling honest stories about people, vices, and virtues then and never looked back.

I love anything black magic camera :)

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

So many stories about resilience. Two come to mind: when my dad left the house at 11 and when my mom was shot 6 months later at 12. I realized that Superman was not coming to help, and either you figured it out and rose to the occasion or you folded. I was fortunate and protected, but I had to fight my way out of Detroit, Michigan, literally.

The other story that comes to mind is crossing over cultures when I became a river guide in Northern Etna, California (I was there for love). I was the only black guy, probably sniffed water twice in my life, and I had to swim currents, float currents, flip boats, and learn still water, and hydraulics that could be deadly and come out the other side. I was terrified, but I focused on the calmness of the best person there and did what they did and persevered.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn giving people the benefit of the doubt. The back story is that I was writing for a show, and the company we worked with made an error that cost us the ability to hire writers to build a six-series pilot. This put me in a position to either write all the episodes, jokes, and opening monologues with no upfront compensation but a promise in good faith on the next season, or not write the episodes and let the project fail. I chose to write the episodes, 70k investment, and take the organization’s word (billion dollar org) to honor me on season 2. Season 2 rolled around, after a successful season 1, and the person over the project did not want to honor the verbal agreement. I learned that most people can’t be given the benefit of the doubt because the subconscious mind operates out of traumas and defaults to self-preservation; unless healed, that will be the reality of most.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.3strandfilms.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/redrev/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-a-d-thomason-b26bb94/
• Other: My Vimeo profile https://vimeo.com/user68872967